Date:  Mon, 1 Dec 1997 10:03:44 -0600
From:  Luanne von Schneidemesser <lvonschn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Berliner; pancake turners, spatulas, scrapers; slider

Check Juergen Eichhoff's Wortatlas der deutschen Umgangssprachen, vol. 2,
map 61 (1978) for more recent although similar findings on the names for
the (usu) jelly-filled pastry. In the north (Schleswig-Holstein,
Niedersachsen), west of the Rhine River, and in Baden-Wuerttenberg and
neighboring Switzerland, the term Berliner is used. Pfannkuchen is used in
what used to be East Germany. In Hesse and bordering areas the term
Kraeppel is used, less commonly Krapfen; Krapfen is the main term in
Bavaria and Austria. When I was doing this interviewing in the central
parts of West Germany, I found that the bakeries in Hesse would frequently
have signs for Berliner, but people would say Krapfen or Kraeppel when
asking for them.

To relate this to our ADS list more directly, check DARE: we have entered
Berliner (esp WI), krapfen (Ger settlement areas), and krebbel. More
interesting to me is the entry for bismarck (chiefly Upper MW, wGt Lakes).
This term is not used at all in Germany, but seems to come from the Hotel
Bismarck in Chicago.

And speaking of pancakes (more or less), we had a discussion at coffee
break a while back on pancake turners, spatulas, and scrapers. I grew up
with pancake turner for the thing you use to turn over what is being
cooked/fried in a pan (DARE has plenty of evidence on this, showing it to
be widespread but more frequent in the Northeast, North Central and West);
to scrape out bowls and pans we used a spatula (DARE shows spatula as
pancake turner to be quite widespread). Others disagreed, maintaining that
that was done with a scraper. DARE had no question on this latter point.
What do you call it?

One more point. Driving home from a wedding in Iowa City this summer, we
stopped at St. Donatus, Iowa. On the menu was a slider, a sandwich with
various kinds of meat. Do any of you know this term? Bob Wachal pointed
out the earlier use of slider for a White Castle hamburger, but that's not
the same thing.

Thanks.

Luanne von Schneidemesser

At 06:29 PM 11/29/1997 +0100, Jan Strunk wrote:
>The word "Berliner" is indeed the name of a jelly-filled pastry, but only
>in some parts of Germany, mainly in the west and south west.
>I'm from Bochum, Northrhine-Westphalia, and it's native to me.
>However, in Berlin itself, this kind of pastry is called Pfannkuchen
>(pancake), although it's usually fried.
>The Berliners may however have known the additional sense of the word.
>Although one normally says "Ich bin Berliner" without indefinite article,
>it's perfectly correct, grammatical and also understandable to say
>"Ich bin ein Berliner".
>In conclusion, I would say, that it might be funny for some people in
>Germany, but I wouldn't call it a real mistake.
>
>sources: myself
>     DWA (The German Word Atlas)
>
>Jan Strunk
>strunk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]t-online.de
>